


No Rest for the Wicked

by SZRaff



Series: A Pinch of Magic, A Sprinkle of Fate [ Clextober 2019 ] [4]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: 13 Days of Clexa, Clexa Halloween Week, Clextober, Clextober 2019, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 18:31:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21903037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SZRaff/pseuds/SZRaff
Relationships: Clarke Griffin/Lexa
Series: A Pinch of Magic, A Sprinkle of Fate [ Clextober 2019 ] [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1522511
Comments: 9
Kudos: 99





	No Rest for the Wicked

Once Clarke was back to work, time passed quickly in a blur of shifts punctuated by eating and brief periods of unconsciousness. She couldn’t justify those periods as sleep because half the time she felt more tired when she woke up than before she closed her eyes, so she ended up running on coffee and adrenaline until the end of a shift. And so, if it hadn’t been for the recent events that Clarke had witnessed and experienced, she would have thought the lack of sleep was making her see things. 

It was the little things really, that Clarke had started to notice. She would see someone wave their hand at a crossing and the traffic light would change. Something about to fall off a table would scoot suddenly away from the edge. Nyko, a ward nurse who Clarke had known for years, suddenly had spiral tattoos on his face that no one else could see. (Nyko had practically run away from Clarke when she commented that they were a bold choice). 

Clarke simply went about her life as normal, yet for some reason she now noticed the hints of magic interwoven in the world she thought she knew so well. 

Every time she saw something new she would drop a message to Lexa, who had quickly become a regular presence in Clarke’s daily thoughts. In between Clarke’s commentary of potentially magical sightings and updates on Lexa’s latest activity with Anya, the messages were increasingly flirtatious and Clarke just wished Lexa would make a move already. 

Of course, Clarke could always make that first move herself; but amongst juggling patient needs, emergency surgeries, and keeping on top of the paperwork that came with her job, Clarke didn’t have the time nor energy for a date. Or so she told herself. 

That was why, whilst sat at the nurses’ station typing up patient notes, when Clarke’s phone buzzed with a text from Lexa, her breath caught. 

‘ _Do you have plans tonight_?’

Clarke’s fingers itched to reply right away to say that she would clear her schedule ( _planned sleep time_ ) for whatever Lexa had in mind ( _hopefully still involving a bed_ ), but she caught herself. _Way too keen._ She deliberated on what to reply for far longer than she should have considering she was in the middle of typing up notes. More than anything she was surprised that Lexa had finally bitten the bullet and taken the plunge.

Clarke eventually settled on: ‘that depends what you have in mind,’ and hit send before she placed her phone on silent and out of sight. She needed to get her work done and not think about Lexa until she was finished.

That lasted about as long as it took to finish typing a single set of notes as Clarke’s curiosity got the better of her. Her excitement withered at the reply. 

‘ _Stay indoors and around people_.’ 

_What?_ Clarke sourly stuffed her phone back in her scrubs pocket. She didn’t know what she had been expecting; an offer of a movie and a candlelit dinner? Clarke huffed and placed her next set of notes on the desk a little heavier handed than necessary.

‘Sexting not going so well, doc?’ Nurse Monroe asked sympathetically.

‘What?’ Clarke gulped, unaware of the nurse’s presence. ‘I’m not sexting, Zoe. I’m at work.’

Monroe looked far from convinced. ‘Like that matters. Come on, you’ve been checking your phone like a thousand times more than usual this week and no one sends a PG text while biting their lip. Trust me.’ 

Clarke blanched under Monroe’s knowing eye. 

‘It’s not that simple,’ she murmured. ‘One minute she’s all flirty and sexy, and the next it’s like she doesn’t want to know me at all.’

‘I’ve heard that before,’ Monroe sighed. ‘Just make sure you’re not being messed about, Clarke. You’re too good for that.’

Clarke was flattered and gave Monroe a quick smile. ‘Thanks, Zoe.’

‘Doctor Griffin, to the ER please,’ the overhead tannoy announced. ‘Doctor Griffin, to the ER please.’

‘No rest for the wicked, eh,’ Monroe grinned as Clarke apologised and hurried off towards the Emergency Room, all thoughts of Lexa pushed out of her mind.

Five hours of surgery later and Clarke was dead on her feet, but it was all worth it when a patient came out the other end on track for recovery. Clarke needed sleep, food, and a shower. Not necessarily in that order.

Though all of the surgery team were tired, the win of saving a patient’s life kept them upbeat and they chatted about inconsequential things as they left the surgical wing on the way to the various staff rooms to change.

‘Clarke?’

Clarke was stunned to find Lexa sat in the hospital waiting room. She got to her feet and made her way towards Clarke. On a quick glance Clarke couldn’t see anything wrong with her, _so why was she there_?

‘Lexa? What are you doing here? Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine, I came to check on you,’ Lexa looked concerned. ‘You didn’t answer any of my texts or calls.’

From behind Lexa’s back, Monroe gave a thumbs up and a wink from the nurses’ station.

‘I was in surgery,’ Clarke replied with a gesture to her scrubs. ‘What’s the emergency?’

Lexa looked mystified. ‘There isn’t one. I just wanted to make sure you were okay and you’d received my message.’

Clarke was too exhausted to try and understand what Lexa was on about. ‘I don’t know what you said, Lex. I’ve been in surgery for hours and my feet are about to fall off. The last message I read from you was some bollocks about staying inside with people.’

Lexa nodded. ‘That’s the one.’

Clarke couldn’t believe her ears; rage boiled through her fatigue and prompted a new release of energy. ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’

‘What?’

Clarke grabbed Lexa by the arm and dragged her into an empty examination room. 

‘Clarke, are you sure you’re okay?’ Lexa asked. Clarke found herself getting even more riled up at her concern.

‘I am fine, Lexa. I’m just trying to work out why the hell you’d come here to check I’d received your bullshit message.’

‘To make sure you were okay,’ Lexa frowned. And _damn_ , even her confused face was adorable.

‘I’m just fed up of the mixed signals I’m getting from you,’ Clarke ran her hands through her blonde hair. ‘One minute you’re flirty and sounding like a booty call then the next minute you’re telling me to hang out with other people. I don’t get it.’

Lexa’s mouth formed a comical ‘o’ as she processed Clarke’s words. ‘I see now why you could reach that conclusion.’

‘Really?’ Clarke laced her voice with as much sarcasm as she could muster. ‘Well that’s a relief.’

‘I’m sorry for the misunderstanding, Clarke,’ Lexa apologised. ‘Anya and I were on the way to deal with something when I spoke to you earlier and my intentions didn’t really come across via text.’

Clarke was cynical. ’And what were your intentions exactly?’

‘To keep you safe.’ Lexa closed the distance between them. ‘Tonight isn’t a safe night to be on your own.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘There’s a meteor shower tonight,’ Lexa explained. ‘And without giving you a lecture on the subject, meteor showers attract all sorts of creatures, but primarily ghouls.’

Clarke blinked slowly. ‘Ghouls? They’re a thing?’

Lexa nodded. ‘Undead creatures that seek to lure away and kidnap wandering souls to kill and eat them.’

‘No way.’

‘Yeah way.’

‘Like zombies?’

‘Totally different things.’

‘So why aren’t you out there stopping them?’ Clarke asked. ‘Isn’t that your job?’

‘I’ve got people on the job,’ Lexa said confidently. ‘That’s why I came to make sure you were okay.’ 

Clarke felt flattered, but still quite confused. ‘Thank you, but I’m okay. Honestly. My shift is about to finish and then I’ll just head home and sleep until my shift tomorrow.’

Lexa crossed her arms, unconvinced. ‘And how are you going to get home?’

‘Subway, same as always.’

‘Absolutely not,’ Lexa shook her head. ‘Especially not tonight. I’ll drive you home.’

‘I can’t ask you to do that,’ Clarke refused.

‘You’re not asking, I’m offering,’ Lexa was adamant. ‘I’ll wait for you to finish.’

‘I still need to shower and change.’ Clarke wasn’t sure why she was trying to come up with excuses to not spend time with Lexa when that’s exactly what she had been wanting since Lexa had swanned out of her apartment a week ago. ‘I can’t guarantee what time I’ll finish.’

Lexa shrugged. ‘It takes as long as it takes.’

Clarke tried to fight a smile. ‘Okay, well you’ll have to wait in the waiting room until I’m done.’

‘Whatever you say, doc,’ Lexa saluted. Clarke chuckled and turned away to open the examination room door. She missed Lexa curse herself and stare accusingly at her right hand.

The rest of Clarke’s shift passed quickly and when the clock ticked over to eleven, Monroe all but herded her into the locker room to shower and change. 

‘Your girl has been waiting patiently for you, so go and see her.’ Monroe scolded. ‘And unless you’ve got another one on the go that’s been giving you mixed signals, this one is definitely into you.’

‘Shut up,’ Clarke blushed and retreated into the shower.

‘You know I’m right,’ Monroe called as she left. 

Clarke showered as speedily as she could, lest she incur Monroe’s wrath at leaving Lexa any longer than necessary, and emerged freshly scrubbed and out of her scrubs into the Waiting Room.

‘Sorry for making you wait,’ Clarke apologised once again.

Lexa rolled her eyes. ‘I volunteered to wait, Clarke. It’s fine.’

‘I know, but you didn’t have to.’ They started walking to the car park and Clarke suddenly panicked. ‘You didn’t come on your bike, did you?’

‘Don’t worry,’ Lexa laughed. ‘I wouldn’t make you hang onto me after a twelve-hour shift - you’d fall asleep and topple off.’

‘That’s true.’ Clarke laughed along nervously. Lexa didn’t need to know that Clarke would be wide awake in that situation.

‘I take it you’ve not eaten recently?’ Lexa asked once they had reached her truck.

Clarke grimaced. ‘That depends on what your definition of recently is.’

Lexa shook her head. ‘In that case, before I get you back home, would you object to us picking up a takeaway?’ 

‘Not at all,’ Clarke wondered whether she was actually dreaming already. She had been planning on having sleep with a side of sleep for dinner before bed.

‘Hop in then.’

Clarke’s eyelids were drooping as they drove back to her house. Lexa’s car was a comfortably warm temperature, and though the smell of their Chinese takeaway made Clarke aware of quite how hungry she was, it also felt like a comforting blanket over her senses, lulling her to sleep. 

Just as Clarke drifted into unconsciousness, she was startled awake by a loud curse from Lexa as she slammed on the brakes.

‘Get out of the road, dumbass!’ Lexa yelled at a figure in the road. Clarke squinted; the person didn’t seem phased at all that they had almost been hit by a car. They just continued to shuffle across the road, and when they reached a patch illuminated by a streetlight, Clarke saw that the figure was a teenage boy with short blonde hair. 

‘Shit,’ Lexa hissed. ‘Stay here.’ In a flash, Lexa had unfastened her seatbelt and grabbed a bundle from behind the driver’s seat. 

‘What’s going on?’ Clarke asked, alert and confused. 

Without giving an answer, Lexa hopped out of the truck and pulled out a belt with all sorts of pockets and attachments on it from the bundle. From the side of the driver’s seat she pulled out something long, thin, and sword-like, and strapped it to her back.

Clarke’s jaw dropped. ‘Is that a machete?’

‘Stay in the car,’ Lexa ordered. She shut the door and slowly approached the kid. Clarke couldn’t hear what she was saying to him, but saw Lexa reach out to touch his shoulder before stopping herself and looking quickly in the direction he was heading. He hadn’t stopped trudging onwards towards what appeared to be a gated park. The branches cast dark shadows like fingers reaching out for the boy.

Lexa stealthily crept towards the park, a hunting knife drawn from her belt. Her heart hammered in her chest, tinged with an emotion she was unused to feeling: fear. Aden shouldn’t have been out alone; he knew better than that. Tonight of all nights.

Already in the hypnotic state, waking him would do no good. Lexa had to take out the source, otherwise the ghoul would simply move onto another victim before she could get close. 

Lexa felt for the tube attached to the left of her belt. Without taking her eyes from the park entrance, she twisted the cap off the flare, struck the ends together with well-practised precision and threw the flare overarm into the darkness of the park. 

The bolt of bright red light lit up the area, including the hulking frame of a ghoul that raised a tattered arm to cover its dark-adjusted eyes from the light. Aden stumbled as the trance broke and Lexa surged forward, knife in hand.

The ghoul bellowed, enraged at the loss of its prey. The sound grated like nails on a chalkboard. Lexa was only about twenty paces away from the creature when it realised the imminent danger and turned to lumber away, but it was close enough for Lexa. With the speed and fluidity of someone who has spent a lot of time throwing knives at moving targets, Lexa’s knife cut through the air and found its mark with a squelch in the ghoul’s skull.

The creature fell to the leaf littered ground with a dull thump. Lexa approached cautiously, just in case the knife hadn’t achieved the required level of brain death needed to kill a ghoul. That was what her machete was there for. 

The stench of rotting flesh filled Lexa’s nostrils as she got closer. She unsheathed her blade and held it steady in front of her. The fizz of the flare and the billowing smoke made it tricky to check visually whether the ghoul was still sentient, so to be sure Lexa swung the machete and severed the head clean off. She pulled her knife from the skull and tried not to breathe in the foul air.

She turned away from the body and had a quick glance around to make sure there were no random passers by or window watchers to have seen what had happened. Lexa pulled her phone from her pocket and dialled a number while she crouched beside the body that the ghoul had chosen to inhabit. 

‘Tristan? I need a clean up.’ Lexa frowned and leaned closer to the disembodied skull. There was a mark seared into the forehead - a hand with a spiral in the palm. It was Nia’s mark. ‘Dammit.’

Lexa stood up quickly and reeled off her location to Tristan, warning him to be cautious. 

She had thought Nia had cleared the area after their last meeting as neither she nor Anya had found any trace of her. But if Nia was back and raising ghouls then they had a problem. Particularly if they were targeting those that she knew. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Aden was out alone and in the ghoul’s sights. 

Lexa kicked the flare deeper into the park and returned to check that Aden and Clarke were alright. She found them sat on the pavement talking, Clarke had a comforting arm around Aden’s shoulders. She dropped to one knee in front of Aden; his face was ashen.

‘You okay, bud?’ Lexa asked. 

Aden nodded. ‘I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be out tonight. I lost track of time and thought I could get home quick.’ 

‘It’s alright, you’re safe now,’ Lexa pulled him into a one armed hug. ‘Now let’s get in the truck, off the street. Indra will be worried about you.’

Aden looked like he wanted to apologise some more, but Lexa steered him towards the car, giving Clarke a reassuring arm touch and a concerned glance as they crossed in front of the car. Clarke returned a small smile to let her know that she was okay. A little bewildered perhaps, not sure what had just happened or why, but she was okay.


End file.
